Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

I took about an hour to lay in the masking on the reflector to keep it from being painted. I'll take a better picture tonight.

ACTROS

iTrader: (7)

Good shit, good luck Chris, if anyone can pull something like this off, it's you

Bearcat94

Are you kidding me! What a F*cking Donkey!

:wink:

ACTROS

iTrader: (7)

^Haha, his sources, he tried stealing my stock heads from me, I stalled, now he's scavenging the junk yards. I feel for him though, new parts are prohibitively expensive and they add up fast, one must improvise.

IvoryGT

post wall shots when you're done

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Will do... I'll be postng a few pics tonight.

- Angel Eyes mounted on trim rings - done
- Projectors complete - done
- All headlight parts masked and ready to be dropped off at the paint shop

We'll have a week delay though, as I'll be in Vegas all next for a business trip... tragic.

Slow, but steady progress gents. I'm just post whoring now.

Buda

iTrader: (1)

So it's friday and I was working the entire evening while watching SciFi. All I wanted to top off the night was some more pics from Kennedy... so obviously my night is totally shot now.

Bearcat94

^^

You're night? I didn't even watch SciFi. I just sat here, at this thread, hitting refresh every 30 seconds for the past 7 hours.

:iamsodissapointed:

dragonlord

Where does the Play-Doh come in on?

Definately can't wait to watch this project! Good job so far Chris!

P.S. CF shroud got me 2nd place at NOPI Atlanta!! THANX!

voigt

I didn't see it mentioned. How much did you pay for your headlights. I want to do a custom light but I don't have time to not have my car for one day. Where is the best place to buy them?

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Sorry to disappoint. Got home late, had some bidness to address with the wife...

2004/5 Projectors, custom foregound limiters -fronts side blacked out, rear side polished wi... ready to be mounted with Philips 85122+ bulbs


Staring into the eyes of SARON... since we're in a SciFi kinda mood.


Angel Eye and bezel:


Mounted:




Off to paint...


Making progress boys... Just got to order the carbon Fiber edges...

Paint should take another week. Stay tuned.

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

voight,
I actually have been throuh 5 spare headlights.

I would buy broken one's off ebay (< $100) and try to salvage the plastic trim pieces you see in the pics, but unfortunately, none of them had enough usable unbroken parts to salvage. I exctracted the projectors from these scrappers which fetch a pretty penny on hidplanet, and made up the difference - broke even on that. I tried three times, then said, f'it, I'm buying a mint, known good headlights.

I then bought 2 more headlights off ebay to the tune of about $150-$175 each. These light are mint. I used them for all my paint parts.

When it's all said and done, I'll have nearly 350 tied up in headlight spares... but that's OK, because I'll have a spare set of headlights to clear which I already have a buyer for.

I'm actually doing 2 sets of these "Kennedy special" lights (well he does plan to help a bit), to a buyer yet to be announced.
In the end, I'll break even on the headlight investment, but the ZKWs, Angels, custom paint and CF will cost obviously ...

IvoryGT

custom jobs are not cheap in parts nor the time invested. It's easy to feel retrofitters charge a lot until you try to do it yourself.

good going with the progress there. what did you mean by custom foreground limiters. what'd you do to it?

ballinfizzle89

iTrader: (6)

Yo Kennedy, I know you're going for function over looks, but why not 6k bulbs while you're going for the custom look?

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Although I was advised against it, I mirror polished the "bulb" side of the forground limiter (well almost mirror, the cheaped stamped steel of the foreground limiters doesn't polish easily with a dremel and rouge), and I blacked out the lens side, as well as blacking out the inside of the lens casing and cutoff shield (see first pictures).

I figure, if cutting off the foreground limiter reduces overall intensity (foreground mod), a little polish should amp it up a bit. It MAY cause a bit of ghosting and stray light. We'll see. it's probably way overkill.





6K, 8K, 10K, etc... all chinese crap. No OEM manufacturer makes such a thing. They're junk. I have cheapo ebay 6K's right now, and the output is awful.

For about every 2K in color temp you go up, you loose about 200 lumens of light. Phillips 85122+ are about 200 lumens brighter than OEM... 6000K bulbs would be about 4-600 lumes less bright (like 15%). No thanks. I prefer the optimum light output, not "OMFG look, my HIDS are blue".

IvoryGT

^ different Kelvin bulbs are not advised...but don't make it racial please.

a better idea might be covering all the openings with aluminum tape to keep light from escaping. I did this for FX projectors and actually gain some width.

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Racial? huh? I'm reffering to manufacturing origin of those bulbs, and my statement is true... Let's not turn this thread into a political correctness festival either.

What openings would you cover? I polished the cutoff shield hoping it would serve as a bit of a reflector. I though about using aluminum tape, but the reflectiveness of the polish is much better.

IvoryGT

well manufacturing origins can be korea or taiwan also, are you assuming they are all the same or they are some how better or worse. blanket statements are not exactly educational.


The openings are between the two halves and the foreground limiter on the top of the projector. It's not much, but having a completely enclosed projector, you benefit from more light.

FiveLiterCheater

Hmmm i'm still waiting on your blacked out set hah!

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Well... my ebay bulbs were clearly stamped "made in china", but let's not let this that the US imports tremendous amounts of goods from China, much of it of questionable quality or legitimate "brand", it's a fact.

What you described on the cutoff shield (and the lower half) is exactly what I mirror polished to reflect more light back into the projector... You can kinda see it in my crappy pictures.

I'm in Vegas baby!... off to the tables!

IvoryGT

hate to go OFF topic but I insist on not making people think that higher Kevin = sub quality. It's obviously BRAND and ORIGIN dependent, though I never tested my uncle's products, but he runs a HID manufacturing plant in Taiwan with 4% fail rate in 5 years, it's not super but I don't think it's that bad either.

ALSO, "6K, 8K, 10K, etc... all chinese crap. No OEM manufacturer makes such a thing"

Philips make VARIOUS different Kelvins in Japan, starting from 3000K Ultinons to 4200K 4300K to 5000K to 5700K to 6000K to 6700K, I think you get my point.
Though higher kelvin equals less lumen, it doesn't necessary mean it's a crap bulb and OEM manufacturers DO make high kelvin bulbs to an extent.

Surely you'd say it's in Japan and not here, which true, but like I said, blanket statements are not exactly educational.

my case and point




PS. good luck and set a limit

Laxplaya11385

dude...Taiwan >>> China

b827

Needless to say...thats a cool display of the different Kelvins

IvoryGT

I should know

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

I wish that display would show 8k, 10k and 12k too for a comparison. All the comparo pics online are BS photoshopped with manipulated tints.

I upgraded to "cheapo" 8ks....$35 for the pair, can't go wrong. They burn out in a year, I don't care, I was just curious to try them out. I will be putting up a thread about them as I cleared them out and have switchback LEDs in them as well.

Yeah I'm one of those dummies that want bluer lights......I know they are illogical and the reasoning to have the lower Kelvin is of course the smarter arguement. I had them on my old Bimmer and loved them. The road looks freakin flourescent black on a rainy night, LOL! You have to have a good set of eyes.

I just thought going from 4300k to 6k would not be enough of a difference to justify the cost of an upgrade but now I think the 8k are a bit bluer than I want. I was looking for a better match with my white LED fogs and switchbacks.....I was about to go to 10k and I'm glad I didn't go that far! I think I'll go to 6ks soon.

Laxplaya11385

me too. My great grandfather opened up the Bank of Taiwan, so i got ties over there.

IvoryGT

is that right? the farmer's bank or the original one? Good to have connections...especially in Taiwan.

lopopo

couldnt have said it better than myself

ballinfizzle89

iTrader: (6)

I dont think it matters China or Taiwan..what matters is the ACTUAL product

Laxplaya11385

honestly, i have no idea. I was told through a friend who's parents are really good friends w/ my parents/grandparents.

my parents keep all the family secrets away from me

i guess it's good. Keeps me humble

lights

iTrader: (1)

any update?

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Just got back from Vegas.

Dropping parts off to paint Tuesday.

datmrman

I've gone through and removed some posts that I considered off topic in a discussion about headlight modification. Please stay on topic.

Kennedy, good luck with this. As with everyone, I'm looking forward to the final results.

b827

bump

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Haven't forgotten guys... Been travelling a lot.
Parts are done at the paintshop, I'll be picking them up Wednesday/Thursday.

I was in Vegas 2 weeks ago, in Nashville the last week... Just haven't been home to work this.

Soon guys.

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Update... My paint guy says headlight parts will be done next week... Side work is always lowest priority.

The project is moving along. "Slowly but steady".

I ordered the last part I needed, turn signals. After seeing this guys leds in action, I decided to order the 7443 "Eagle-Eye towers" in amber from autolumination.
See 04WDPSedan's post on these turn signals here:
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ghlight=forget



I expect mine to be brighter than his, as he blacked out the entire reflector. I masked off the inner reflector section, as discussed on page 2.


Here's a little DIY for anyone else wanting to do angel eyes. I finally tracked down a tube of "Quick Grip", the glue reccomended by Lightwurkz to secure the angel eyes to the headlight bezels. Found it at Wal-Mart, in the old lady section (fabrics and crafts).



The rings fit right to inside edge of the bezel lip. I used some masking tape to hold the ring to the bezel, flipped the bezel over, and ran a bead of glue along the inside edge between the bezel and the ring.
After letting the glue dry for a few hours, I then removed the tape, and ran another light bead of glue where the tape was covering the bezel.



Dried overnight, and it's very secure.

I'll run the wires over the top of the headlight (inside), drill a tiny hole in the "back cap" (where you access the HID bulbs), to run the wires out, then splice the ballast into the running lights... Use a little RTV to seal up the drill hole.

Like Hannibal says... " I love it when a plan comes together".

IvoryGT

looking good

ballinfizzle89

iTrader: (6)

Awesome man

Damnit, this thread makes me want to do my headlights over again. I'll definitely get to this after I'm done withe drop and new exhaust.

BTW..probably a noob question but how are you hooking up the angel eyes? Are you doing them as DRL's or like BMW's, when just the side lights are on?

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Splicing them into the running lights, so they'll come on with the side markers and the new yellow led running lights.

Think "fist click" on your headlight switch...

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

We're almost there boys and girls...

Picked up the frame pieces that were painted at the body shop Friday. Spent a few minutes reassembling the frames this morning.

The colormatch is damn near perfect, it's a nice gunmetal metallic. The only "issue" that came up, is that I had the parts matte clear coated, but even the matte clearcoating leaves a bit of sheen to the parts. I figure that won't matter at all when these frames are installed behind a clear lexan lens, inside the headlight housing.

Man, I am pumped up...







I decided on running light leds too.
These: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-AMB...spagenameZWDVW



I couldn't justify $50 for two eagle eyes from autolumination, and the yellow/orange version has a nasty yellow annodized heat sink at the top.
These are 1/2 the price, have a nice low profile, a chrome bezel for the top, and should be almost equvalent in brightness.

Only waiting on 1 thing, the order for carbon fiber trim on the outer edge. The last place I ordered from has yet to ship, so I had to cancel and reorder this week.

I should be installing in 2 weeks.